Just saw the announcement that Canva is combining all three Affinity apps into a single app and making it available for free. That’s right – Affinity Designer, Photo, and Layout are now available for Windows and Macs for free (the iPad version is coming soon). You have to set up a free Canva account, but you’re able to download the Studio app as many devices as you want. The only paid feature will be for using Canva AI in the apps – otherwise, you are free to use them as you have in the past.
I forgot to catch Serif’s presentation today, so did a quick web-scour to get the run-down and as one of the YouTubers said, given all the possible outcomes today’s announcement turned out to be the best case scenario. Here’s a decent rundown
Affinity Designer and Photo have been my daily driver for years possibly pre-dating Glowforge use. Supporting the major Mac and PC platforms was a huge attractor and their generous licensing back then (license to install on 5 devices) removed the Sophie’s Choice on what household computers got it. But they went the extra mile and was among the first to bring it (vector and photo) to iPadOS. Kicking a project up to iCloud and having that freedom to continue/modify it from desktop or iPad Is all sorts of convenient.
On all the devices I’ve installed Affinity products to, I’ve added a Glowforge Preset. If not already opened, select File > New and be sure the left column is on the New tab. (not Open, Recent or Templates) On that dialog, bottom left has a button to Add a New Preset
For my preset, I set the Page width to 20 and height to 12 inches. I don’t believe DPI matters. Margins set to unselected. Artboard unselected. That’s all that’s needed. Find the circular icon next to the preset’s name, that’s the Save and Overwrite icon.
Anytime I’m starting a new Glowforge item, this preset opens a document that gives me a rough bed size to work from. YES, the actual machine’s bed size is marginally smaller than this, but visually it’s served as a very reliable canvas for me. (Pro and Basic machines, not sure ‘bout you Spark and Aura users)
When I’m finished and ready to make the Glowforge vector object, in Designer it’s just a matter of going to File > Export to bring up this dialog. In the top pull-down select SVG. I don’t think I’ve altered much else under the SVG for export Preset pull-down. Raster is left blank. Export text as curves is activated.
I’ll save my SVGs in a organized Glowforge Prints folder and when loading them into the browser interface, there has been ZERO need to ever fiddle with its scale. A 1-inch rectangle I’ve created in Designer ultimately cuts as a 1-inch rectangle on the Glowforge.
Hope this helps those new to Affinity. If it did help, I may have another trick or two up my sleeve….
I’ve not touched Inkscape in ages, but I can presume that an Affinity ninja pitted against an Inkscape ninja would be a reasonably even match. By now, both ought to be able to step through all the basic vector repertoires.
Beyond that, the multi-platform ability mentioned above is huge for me. I also much-preferred the way Affinity products stuck to well-established UI elements.
As to stuff I found cool about Affinity, one of them was Vector Brushes. Laying down a brush stroke in traditional pixel-based apps (ie, Photoshop) meant the stroke was fulled baked. In Affinity Designer’s Vector Brush, what looks like a stylized stroke (ie, loaded with acrylic paint) actually remains as a CURVE with NODES that’s re-adjustable… exactly like any other Bézier curve.
While there’s a large included library of these Vector Brushes subcategorized into Acrylics, Oils, Pencil, Engravings, Patterns, Watercolors, etc… the REAL power of this is the ability to create my OWN set of custom Vector Brushes like this new self-made category of Asian Trim:
In this “stroke”, I hit the Node tool (or tap “A”) where the underlying bezier skeleton is revealed allowing me to change the curve in any possible way and even it’s “thickness”
It’s been a great way to make engravable borders (because it saved as a bitmap) but with Affinity’s announcement today, they finally have vector tracing, so this final stroke ought to be convert-able back to a true vector for cutting/scoring as an SVG.
For the faithful Affinity Designer users, I give to the community… Asian Trim Brushes:
Unzip it into the file “AsianTrim.afbrushes”. To install it in Designer, find the “hamburger icon” located in the Brushes panel. You’ll find the ability to Import Brushes there. To use it, Affinity Designer invokes it with the “B” keyboard shortcut.
Doesn’t have to be an open free-hand curve stroke either. Drag out a standard Elipse shape, with it selected, click on the Vector Brush… or another Vector Brush… or another Vector Brush. Fancy and instantaneous border trim all day long…
I suppose free means why not give it try! Let the download commence. This should be fun to explore. The brush strokes seem particularly interesting but also curious about other path effects like envelope deformation etc. what fun!
…looking up the metadata of the foundational artwork… 2020…. Ohhh.. that’s right… had LOTS and LOTS of shelter-in freetime to whip up my collection and categories of Vector Brushes!!
The possible counter is that you’re buying into an ecosystem that has different priorities now. For example: when Glowforge switched to subscriptions, all but a few new features were focused on gaining more subscribers. It’s no guarantee that will happen here but Canva has no real incentive to develop new features in the suite unless it drives subscriptions.
Affinity may be a good product now but looking down the line you wonder where it’s headed. My guess? It’s either going to languish or it’ll switch to paid subscription either de facto or outright once one of two things happens:
they get significant market share (especially if they become dominant)
they find that it’s not driving enough subscriptions to meet their projections
I could be wrong, but I think that’s the ride you’re signing up for by converting to that ecosystem now. I haven’t looked to see if Canva is public, but if they are I’m even more confident that this will happen.
Nothing is free. Especially forever. But my existing Affinity still works even if you have to open different apps for design vs photo Just need to understand you may be moving again in the future. No biggie. (I’m still using a 10 yr old version of Corel Draw too )
Don think j will be giving up Inkscape, mostly trying out of curiosity. I assume canva is doing this just to poke adobe in the eye . Lots of folks are miffed at adobe so why not .
Just need to understand you may be moving again in the future. No biggie. (I’m still using a 10 yr old version of Corel Draw too 
)